In recent years the awareness of the need to wash hands properly after using the bathroom has grown; but no one person can do much about the bad habits of others. However, this could be changing, as more employees are now keen for someone to take responsibility for workers whose bad habits threaten the health of everyone else.

The Perils of Open-Plan Offices

Insights from a recent (global) Hygiene & Health Report commissioned by Essity and from the Tork Office Trend Report suggest just about three-quarters of offices in the UK are open-plan, which means any number of people could be touching the same keyboards, phone number pads and receivers, desks and who knows what else.

The researchers recognize that while there are plenty of good outcomes from a shared office culture, such as stronger working relationships, these could easily be cancelled out by the health concerns many people (especially younger workers) have about maintaining a consistently clean and hygienic working area.

A previous survey by Essity found that 22-30% of employees avoided using their workplace toilets, generally because they believed them to be too messy and dirty. Over a third of all surveyed had real fears that they would get ill from a dirty work environment. It seems that younger people are twice as likely to be worried about these things than older workers, and that introducing a clear hand hygiene programme in offices with shared space could easily reduce the number of sick days taken whilst also boosting workers’ attitude to the workplace and their colleagues.

The Solutions?

There are two: firstly, to employ professional cleaners, who can make sure all shared areas are safe to use, which adds further peace of mind to concerned staff; so for office cleaning in Cheltenham a manager could contact a professional cleaning company such as http://intocleaning.co.uk.

Secondly, by placing products such as soaps and sanitisers in key areas, people have (and take) the chance to practise fast and no-fuss hand hygiene while at work. It is definitely time for change.